By Helping Environment, NJ Students Are Also Helping Themselves

NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey Education Association recently awarded 26 grants to schools across the Garden State totaling $180,000 for projects that can help the environment and increase students’ understanding of it, the association said.

School personnel charged with administering the grants said students who engage in these programs will learn so much more than reducing, recycling and reusing.

For instance, Delran Intermediate School received $10,000 for a program titled “What a Waste! Reducing Plastic and Water Waste.”

The school intends to use the funds to install four water bottle refilling stations to track how many plastic bottles could have entered the environment, according to Sharon Kernan, the school’s sustainability co-leader. Earlier this year, students participated in a contest to see who could take the shortest shower, which also helped the students see how much water they could save, Kernan continued.

Long before that, and continuing to this day, one in four Delran Intermediate School students were also helping the environment by developing and maintaining a garden and fishpond, she said.

The third- to fifth-graders involved in the program will also develop characteristics that will likely come in handy for the rest of their lives, according to Kernan.

“I want them to have the satisfaction of seeing that their personal goals and their team goals were achieved and then remember that accomplishment, so they have the confidence to try new challenges like that in the future,” she said.

Down in the Cape May County Special Services School District, the $10,000 grant received will support the “Reuse, Refill and Reduce” Program.

This initiative helps increase the students’ understanding of how many plastic bottles they waste and also promotes “responsible green practices that include recycling and alternatives to plastics,” such as reusable shopping bags said Jamie P. Moscony, the district’s assistant superintendent.

Erin OLeen, the district’s guidance counselor, noted that the program has also taught the importance of teamwork. She also said a student once asked her to explain the concept behind the water fountains that track how many plastic bottles the students are not using, which led to what she called a “gratifying” moment in one student’s development.

“He's not typically a student that would stop an adult and ask a question like that,” Oleen said. “For him to even engage in a conversation about something like that was remarkable.”

Up the road from Cape May, in the Howell School District, two $10,000 grants were received.

With the first grant, the district’s Adelphia School said it will create a “Roar and Explore Outdoor Classroom.” This facility will create a reading area for students, gaming areas, a music center, and also offer sensory items such as bubbles, chalk, beanbags and paints to spur creativity in its students aged 5- to 8-years old, regardless of ability, according to the district.

“We focus on purposeful play and those unstructured learning opportunities that can enhance children's competence and their problem solving their ability to be risk takers and think about learning and different interactions in a different way,” said Danielle Palazzolo, Adelphia School Principal.

The second grant will be used to develop a “Limitless Café” at Howell Township Middle School North, which will contain computers with all sorts of modern features the students have likely not used frequently, such as scanning QR codes, using Google Maps and so on, the district said.

The café will allow students “to work on 21st-century life skills and learn how to be more independent … active, responsible citizens who learn how to advocate for themselves,” noted Josephine Schneider, the school’s media specialist.

And further north at Ridgewood High School, the $2,000 grant that was received will enable high school students to begin a tree-planting project.

However, even before being awarded the grant, the students participating in the project were enhancing their skill set in a way that has nothing to do with trees, according to Miles Luo, a biology teacher at the school.

“I let the students take the grant writing [part of the project],” he said. “I figured it'd be a useful experience for them.”

Now that the grant has been received and trees will start to be planted, the participating students will be doing more than beautifying their neighborhood and increasing the amount of oxygen produced, according to Luo.

“We are really looking forward to the bureaucracy of getting permission from the right people picking all the right plants, and then actually getting in the ground and going through that whole thing,” he said. “Planning a community event that, hopefully, people will see for decades is such a valuable experience.”

The full list of grant recipients can be found at this link.

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